BEST OF THE BROKERS

Share

RIO TINTO
Citigroup maintains a “buy” recommendation on Rio Tinto and a price target of £42 but said that its preference among the large diversified miners remains for BHP Billiton and Xstrata. Iron ore remains the most important division for Rio Tinto and Citi expects it to deliver around 58 per cent of the company’s earnings before interest and tax in 2011.

DANA PETROLEUM
Dana’s acquisition of PetroCanada’s Dutch assets for $0.4bn appears reasonable, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BoAML), which said it believes that it raises some question marks over the strategic direction of the company. BoAML questions the rationale of expanding the footprint in infrastructure and declining Dutch upstream assets and maintains a “buy”.

MAJESTIC WINE
Execution Noble said that Majestic Wine’s 2010 results demonstrated that management is driving growth across all parts of the business and taking market share. Execution gives Majestic a “hold” recommendation and said the wine group is well positioned to continue this growth in 2011, despite macro headwinds and increased its 2011 earnings per share by 13 per cent.